Abegail Noëlle
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Catherina
If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Mort & Spunky the awesome cat
Straight away, I'll disclose that I'm fascinated by politics and my views are probably to the left of most Nader voters, yet I've given over 5% of my income to the Democratic Party, Democratic candidates and pressure groups traditionally allied with the Democratic Party in recent years.This documentary takes the same cynical view of American politics most people use as an excuse to not involve themselves in the democratic process: Republicans and Democrats are the same. I think that this has been refuted by past five years--and it was simplistic and naive, at best, to think so before then. We get side-tracked by tactics of the LA and Philadelphia police departments, which would be good grounds for a POV documentary on PBS, and a number of other dead-end subtopics. Then, we get to see a few things C-SPAN and the networks failed to show, like the shadow convention--one of the reasons I give this a low average rating, rather than a poor rating.What this documentary and so many others fail to disclose is that we do live in a multi-party democracy within a two party system. The different factions within the Democratic and Republican Parties essentially give us the same choices one sees in the advanced multi-party democracies of Europe and elsewhere. We get to vote in primaries, they don't. Very briefly, Hoffman allows Barney Frank (always wise, witty and worthy of one's attention) to tell it like it is: Those on the left have abandoned the Democratic Party, if not the democratic process entirely, allowing it all to drift to the right. Simply put, most of those on the far right vote Republican. Most of those on the left don't vote, or waste their votes on people like Nader. Hence, Republicans win, Democrats lose. Unfortunately, Congressman Frank's wisdom (two minutes?) is almost wasted among the garbage here. I don't mean to split hairs here, but Rep. Frank was incorrectly identified with (R-MA) rather than (D-MA). Evidence of careless fact-checking? A thoughtful discussion with William Baldwin was the only other redeeming factor here. Unfortunately it was edited out, presumably because his was a progressive voice somewhat favoring the Democratic Party. It's among the extras on the DVD. Interestingly, among the predictions asserted by those being interviewed in this film, his are most eerily true.All in all, I would praise this if it were an effort by high school students. However this was done by people who should know better. Hopefully now they do.
caspian1978
An interesting look at both political parties in America, The Party's Over is a movie about just that. A look into the 2000 election for President and how corrupt and misguiding both political parties are and how the youth of today has been programmed to become consumers. Although the movie did not have a large budget to use, the film scores big with its audience. Sad but true, the Party's Over captures what is happening in Washington DC and in the White House. The addition of having celebrity interviews, a segment on Ralph Nadar's involvement with the 2000 election and the hidden corruption behind the Bush and Gore administration makes the documentary a delight, no matter what political party you belong to.
gessel
The Party's Over is a carefully constructed and thought-provoking look at both the democratic and republican parties, centering around each of their conventions before the 2000 election. The film makers got access to both conventions and do a wonderful job of showing the amazing hypocrisy of the US democratic process.The film makers are clearly and unapologetically left-leaning, but that doesn't translate to sparing anyone. Only the greens come out well, but even that is undermined by the outcome of the 2000 election, which is the film's enervating denouement.Mr. Hoffman does a great job with the interviews, becoming more confident as he moves along, and there's a charming exchange between him and Michael Moore, to whom he bears physical similarity.
jesscw81
I don't think that there could have been a better choice than Philip Seymour Hoffman for this film. He is without a doubt the most unbiased person involved in the entire production. The rest of the film is well done and presents a very interesting take on the state of politics in the country today. Toward the end, however, the liberal bias which was kept in check for the first three quarters of the film became extremely apparent. The portrayal of the election aftermath is predictably one-sided and undermines the objectivity of the film, and in turn the argument it makes calling for a change in politics.
